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York:Norton. Yourgrau, Palle. 1999. Gödel Meets Einstein. La Salle, Ill.: Open Court Press. ———. 2005. A World without Time: The Forgotten Legacy of Gödel and Einstein. New York: Basic Books. Zackheim, Michele. 1999. Einstein’s Daughter. New York: Riverhead.
NOTES Einstein’s letters and writings through 1920 have been published in The Collected Papers of Albert Einstein series, and they are identified by the dates used in those volumes. Unpublished material that is in the Albert Einstein Archives (AEA) is identified using the folder (reel)-document numbering format of the archives. For some of the material, especially that previously unpublished, I have used translations made for me by James Hoppes and Natasha Hoffmeyer. EPIGRAPH 1. Einstein to Eduard Einstein, Feb. 5, 1930. Eduard was suffering from deepening mental illness at the time. The exact quote is: “Beim Menschen ist es wie beim Velo. Nur wenn er faehrt, kann er bequem die Balance halten.” A more literal translation is: “It is the same with people as it is with riding a bike. Only when moving can one comfortably maintain one’s balance.” Courtesy of Barbara Wolff, Einstein archives, Hebrew University, Jerusalem. CHAPTER ONE: THE LIGHT-BEAM RIDER 1. Einstein to Conrad Habicht, May 18 or 25, 1905. 2. These ideas are drawn from essays I wrote in Time, Dec. 31, 1999, and Discover, Sept. 2004. 3. Dudley Herschbach, “Einstein as a Student,” Mar. 2005, unpublished paper provided to the author. Herschbach says, “Efforts to improve science education and literacy face a root problem: science and mathematics are regarded not as part of the general culture, but rather as the province of priest-like experts. Einstein is seen as a towering icon, the exemplar par excellence of lonely genius. That fosters an utterly distorted view of science.” 4. Frank 1957, xiv; Bernstein 1996b, 18. 5. Vivienne Anderson to Einstein, Apr. 27, 1953, AEA 60-714; Einstein to Vivienne Anderson, May 12, 1953, AEA 60-716. 6. Viereck, 377. See also Thomas Friedman, “Learning to Keep Learning,”New York Times, Dec. 13, 2006. 7. Einstein to Mileva Mari , Dec. 12, 1901; Hoffmann and Dukas, 24. Hoff-mann was Einstein’s friend in the late 1930s in Princeton. He notes, “His early suspicion of authority, which never wholly left him, was to prove of decisive importance.” 8. Einstein message for Ben Scheman dinner, Mar. 1952, AEA 28-931. CHAPTER TWO: CHILDHOOD 1. Einstein to Sybille Blinoff, May 21, 1954, AEA 59-261; Ernst Straus, “Reminiscences,” in Holton and Elkana, 419; Vallentin, 17; Maja Einstein, lviii. 2. See, for example, Thomas Sowell, The Einstein Syndrome: Bright Children Who Talk Late (New York: Basic Books, 2002). 3. Nobel laureate James Franck quoting Einstein in Seelig 1956b, 72. 4. Vallentin, 17; Einstein to psychologist Max Wertheimer, in Wertheimer, 214. 5. Einstein to Hans Muehsam, Mar. 4,1953, AEA 60-604. Also: “I think we can dispense with this question of heritage,” Einstein is quoted in Seelig 1956a, 11. See also Michelmore, 22. 6. Maja Einstein, xvi; Seelig 1956a, 10. 7. www.alemannia-judaica.de/synagoge_buchau.htm. 8. Einstein to Carl Seelig, Mar. 11, 1952, AEA 39-13; Highfield and Carter, 9. 9. Maja Einstein, xv; Highfield and Carter, 9; Pais 1982, 36. 10. Birth certificate, CPAE 1: 1; Fantova, Dec. 5, 1953. 11. Pais 1982, 36–37. 12. Maja Einstein, xviii. Maria was sometimes used as a stand-in for the name Miriam in Jewish families. 13. Frank 1947, 8. 14. Maja Einstein, xviii–xix; Fölsing, 12; Pais 1982, 37. 15. Some researchers view such a pattern as possibly being a mild manifestation of autism or Asperger’s syndrome. Simon Baron-Cohen, the director of the Autism Research Center at Cambridge University, is among those who suggest that Einstein might have exhibited characteristics of autism. He writes that autism is associated with a “particularly intense drive to systemize and an unusually low drive to empathize.” He also notes that this pattern “explains the ‘islets of ability’ that people with autism display in subjects like math or music or drawing—all skills that benefit from systemizing.” See Simon Baron-Cohen, “The Male Condition,”New York Times , Aug. 8, 2005; Simon Baron-Cohen, The Essential Difference (New York: Perseus, 2003), 167; Norm Ledgin, Asperger’s and Self-Esteem: Insight and Hope through Famous Role Models (Arlington,TX: Future Horizons, 2002), chapter 7; Hazel Muir, “Einstein and Newton Showed Signs of Autism,”New Scientist , Apr. 30, 2003; Thomas Marlin, “Albert Einstein and LD,”Journal of Learning Disabilities , Mar. 1, 2000, 149. A Google search of Einstein + Asperger’s results in 146,000 pages. I do not find such a long-distance diagnosis to be convincing. Even as a teenager, Einstein made close friends, had passionate relationships, enjoyed collegial discussions, communicated well verbally, and could empathize with friends and humanity in general. 16. Einstein 1949b, 9; Seelig 1956a, 11; Hoffmann 1972, 9; Pais 1982, 37; Vallentin, 21; Reiser, 25; Holton 1973, 359; author’s interview with Shulamith Oppenheim, Apr. 22, 2005. 17. Overbye, 8; Shulamith Oppenheim, Rescuing Albert’s Compass (New York: Crocodile, 2003). 18. Holton 1973, 358. 19. Fölsing, 26; Einstein to Philipp Frank, draft, 1940, CPAE 1, p. lxiii.
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ALSO BY WALTER ISAACSON A Benjamin
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SIMON & SCHUSTER Rockefeller Center
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In Santa Barbara, 1933 Life is like
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CHAPTER FOURTEEN Nobel Laureate, 19
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their countless acts of support ove
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ABRAHAM FLEXNER (1866-1959). Americ
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CHAPTER ONE THE LIGHT-BEAM RIDER
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The Swabian CHAPTER TWO CHILDHOOD 1
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during the years he lived alone in
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elementary school seemed to me like
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fulfill my wishes and expectations,
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taken out of the black case. It pro
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one of her female friends in Zurich
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Summer Vacation, 1900 CHAPTER FOUR
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The first of these papers was on a
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Lake Como, May 1901 “You absolute
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molecular forces, which used calcul
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His office in Bern’s new Postal a
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affection, and it concluded on that
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Turn of the Century CHAPTER FIVE TH
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These packets or bundles of energy
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though it did not help him get an a
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elative to the medium (the water or
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finally he added, “I guess I just
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Suppose that at the exact instant (
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With all this talk of distance and
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his one-sentence drunken postcard t
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was better suited to theorizing. Fo
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Adler made sure that the Zurich aut
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Zurich, 1909 CHAPTER EIGHT THE WAND
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invitation to stay with Lorentz and
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As Einstein wandered around Europe
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The visitors made their case during
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Mari accepted the terms. When Haber
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When Einstein moved back to Zurich
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indistinguishable from a case where
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Haber’s son in math. 45 But when
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Part of Einstein’s genius was his
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the Annalen der Physik, “The gene
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e a heavy blow for my boys. Therefo
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“The Nobel Prize—in the event o
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Germany’s new left-wing governmen
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Cosmology and Black Holes, 1917 CHA
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quanta involved probability rather
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“Lights All Askew” CHAPTER TWEL
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celebrity, were thrilled that the n
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a “single-minded and single-hande
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Kinship CHAPTER THIRTEEN THE WANDER
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(There was one odd coda to this eve
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Einstein drew packed crowds whereve
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1920s was not a good place or time
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The 1921 Prize CHAPTER FOURTEEN NOB
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photoelectrical effect has been ext
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Atoms emit radiation in a spontaneo
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An additional step was taken by ano
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The Quest CHAPTER FIFTEEN UNIFIED F
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even now. He also gave an interview
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Its shortcoming was that it “make
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Caputh CHAPTER SIXTEEN TURNING FIFT
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later declared. Although she could
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Einstein said, “encases the mind
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His fears were realized. The confer
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CHAPTER SEVENTEEN EINSTEIN’S GOD
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with, his scientific work. “The c
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Christ Church, his college at Oxfor
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new chancellor of Germany. Einstein
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directed to the cottage amid the du
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friends. Most of it was about poor
Page 157 and 158: Princeton CHAPTER NINETEEN AMERICA
Page 159 and 160: Flexner’s interference infuriated
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Page 170 and 171: Was Infeld right? Was tenacity the
Page 173 and 174: The Letter CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE THE B
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Page 182 and 183: monopolies,” they wrote. They den
Page 184: In it he argued that unrestrained c
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Page 189 and 190: he read aloud to her. Sometimes the
Page 192 and 193: The Rosenbergs CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Page 194 and 195: need to keep thrusting himself into
Page 197 and 198: Intimations of Mortality CHAPTER TW
Page 199 and 200: peace. 23 Einstein went in to work
Page 201 and 202: studying the DNA from Einstein’s
Page 203 and 204: SOURCES EINSTEIN’S CORRESPONDENCE
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Page 207: ———. 2005b. “Standing on th
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Page 225 and 226: die Theorie stimmt doch.” 23. Max
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Konenkov, Sergei, 436, 503 Konenkov
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Matthau, Walter, 13 Maxwell, James
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nuclear weapons, 482-84, 487-95, 53
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entanglement in, 454, 455, 458-59
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Remembrance of Things Past (Proust)
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superposition, 456-60 surface tensi
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Whitehead, Alfred North, 261 “Why
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ILLUSTRATION CREDITS Numbers in rom
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5 With Mileva and Hans Albert, 1905
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12 Hiking in Switzerland with Madam
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18 The 1927 Solvay Conference 19 Re
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23 Werner Heisenberg 24 Erwin Schr
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29 With Elsa and her daughter Margo
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34 Welcoming Hans Albert to America
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* The official name of the institut
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* The letters were discovered by Jo
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* A person “at rest” on the equ
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* If the source of sound is rushing
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* The German phrase he used was “
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* She was born Elsa Einstein, becam
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* See chapter 7. For purposes of th
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* Here’s how it works. If you are
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* Einstein’s salary after tax was
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* See chapter 14 for Einstein’s d
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* I have used the translation prefe
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* Robert Andrews Millikan would win
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* The de Broglie wavelength of a ba
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* From his 1905 special relativity
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* As Eddington showed, the cosmolog
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* There are two related concepts th
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